Bill Clinton: “I'm for tax simplification. Anything we can do to simplify the Tax Code, consistent with fairness and not exploding the…”

“I'm for tax simplification. Anything we can do to simplify the Tax Code, consistent with fairness and not exploding the deficit, we ought to do. The first time I heard about a flat tax I thought it sounded like a pretty good idea. But if you look at it, every analysis that I have seen done indicates that the flat tax proposals that are out there now will increase the deficit and increase taxes on all Americans with incomes of under $200,000 a year. So my answer is, I'm going to put a pencil to a piece of paper and figure out how it works. And my suggestion to the American people is that they should put a pencil to a piece of paper and see how it works. We must not explode the deficit. And we must not have a big tax shift from people making over $200,000 to all people making under $200,000. That's not the fair thing to do. President's Leadership Ms. Woodruff. Well, in connection with that, Mr. President, you are the first President in something like I think it's 140 years to go this far in his Presidency without a single veto. Now, you've made some threats and you specifically made some at the end of last week. But House majority leader Dick Armey is out there, is just flatly saying that he thinks you're going to sign any tax cut bill, any tax bill that they send you. In other words, they're not taking you seriously.”